Theses and Dissertations

Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Dissertation - NSU Access Only

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice

Advisor

Roslyn Doctorow

Committee Member

Linda Gaughan

Committee Member

Kimberly Durham

Keywords

Phonics, Reading, and Me, digital reading application, reading intervention, RTI, supplemental tool

Abstract

Although the digital reading app Phonics, Reading, and Me has proven to be a successful supplemental tool for students in kindergarten and grade 1, there is little research regarding the perceptions of teachers and interventionists about the program. This qualitative study was completed to examine teacher perceptions of the piloted digital program. A group of teachers and reading interventionists was interviewed to gather a range of perspectives on the implementation of the digital reading app.

The researcher focused on addressing the following three research questions: (a) how and in what ways do kindergarten and first-grade teachers describe the advantages and disadvantages of digital reading intervention strategies? (b) how do teachers at the research site define effective reading intervention strategies?, and (c) how do the teachers’ perceptions of the digital reading intervention strategy (Phonics, Reading, and Me) compare to their perceptions of traditional reading intervention strategies?

Findings showed that teachers and interventionists in this study felt that the Phonics, Reading, and Me digital reading app cannot serve as a replacement for traditional reading intervention strategies. Teachers reported that there is a lack of student autonomy when using the digital reading app, and they emphasized that the digital reading app lacks the appropriate level of content necessary for it to be a standalone curriculum. They explained that it is a great tool but lacks content to personalize learning for individual students. Additionally, teachers and interventionists highlighted the importance of relationships and explicit instruction, and justified the need for explicit instruction by describing how modeling is a critical aspect of reading instruction, and it cannot be done on a digital reading app alone.

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